How to Bid in a Coin Auction

The Six Steps, Start to Finish

1. Create a free HiBid account. Go to our HiBid page, click sign up, and fill in your details. One account works for every sale we run.
2. Register for the sale you want. Open the auction from our upcoming coin auctions calendar and click register to bid. Approval usually comes through within minutes.
3. Read the catalog like a buyer. Study the photographs, read each description, and note whether a lot is certified (NGC, PCGS) or raw. Check what similar coins brought in our auction results before you decide what a lot is worth to you.
4. Place your bids. Set maximum bids ahead of the session and let the platform bid for you, or join the live webcast and bid in real time. Most lots open at $5 and move in set increments from there.
5. Know your real price. Our buyer's premium is 15%, with a $15 per lot minimum. It is added to your winning hammer price, so set your ceiling with it included. Our buyer's premium guide shows the arithmetic in thirty seconds.
6. Pay and receive your coins. Winners get an invoice after the sale. Pay it and your coins ship to your door, carefully packed; shipping is available on our auctions.

What a Live Webcast Session Feels Like

If you have never watched one, join a session before you bid in one. The auctioneer moves through lots in numerical order at a steady clip, the current bid and asking price sit on your screen, and a bid button puts you in the fight the moment you click it. Absentee bids compete automatically, so a lot can open well above its $5 start when two mailed-in ceilings collide. When the auctioneer says fair warning, that is your last look. It is brisk, it is plain, and after three lots you will have the rhythm. Prebidding closes shortly before each session starts, so anything you want handled automatically needs to be in before the auctioneer picks up the microphone.

Bidding Habits That Pay for Themselves

Decide your ceiling before the bidding starts, not during it. Auction pace is designed to make a coin feel like it is escaping; your written number, set with a cool head and the premium included, is the antidote. Bid on the coin, not the heat. Second, use maximum bids generously. They cost nothing, they cannot be seen by other bidders, and they save you from missing a lot because dinner ran long. Third, when a raw coin tempts you, price it against the certified examples in the results and leave room for the unknown. The buying guide and the full walkthrough of how coin auctions work go deeper on all three habits, and our weekly coin auctions give you plenty of low-stakes lots to practice on. A first bid on a $40 Morgan teaches more than an hour of reading.

Bidding Questions